HU Meeting Minutes, ESG, Sat Oct 18, 3:30 pm.

HU Meeting Minutes, ESG, Sat Oct 18, 3:30 pm.

Attendees, about 15. Do not have the list of attendees with me.

- There was agreement that a multi-pronged approach is necessary in the
short term to stop the road widening project, which is continuing
unabated in spite of the HC appointed committee.

- Approaches that will be considered in the short term include engagement
with officials, petitions to the committee, and a public event like a
walk, or Human Chain. More detail follows.

- HU members should draft and submit representations to the committee,
seeking permission to participate. For this, members should be
prepared with material in case they actually invite you. Das's slides
are a good starting point. Das has also posted a representation that
he has submitted to the committee on this list a few weeks ago. You
can use that as a template. The representation must be submitted to
Suresh, the convenor of the committee. IMPORTANT: Remember to get an
acknowledgement! Ask Das for details re. where and how to submit.

- We should individually, actively start educating groups and people we
interact with in order to build a larger body of opinion.

- ESG will try to get appointements with relevant bureaucrats and
politicians. Expect an update mid week.

- HU members will try to make themselves available for mid week meetings
with officials.

- All HU members must actively start preparing for a public event in
early/mid-Nov. Expect a mid-week confirmation (go / no go) about this
event via email.

1. Potential name: Namma Raste, Namma Uru.
2. Focus: all aspects of road widening.
3. Type of event: walk or human chain
4. Location etc: details TBD mid week.
5. Publicity methods / target groups:
- Engagement with walkers at Lalbagh, Sankey Tank, etc.
- Distribute flyer
- Interviews on radio channels
- Newspaper item
- Trader communities (e.g. Infantry Road)

- Flyer must be simple - each of us can create one now and start
publicity work as soon as mid week by printing out the material from
the ipetition. Needs translation into Kannada.

Minutes of the Hasiru Usiru meeting on July 5, 2008

On July 5th 2008, a meeting was held at ESG office to discuss the recent developments in the campaigns against road widening and privatisation of lakes, and discuss the implications of the interim order of the Karnataka High Court in the road widening PIL. Another reason behind the meeting was to decide upon the future course of action in both the campaigns.

The meeting was attended by Hasiru Usiru members, members from the HSR Layout Residents’ Association, senior citizens, a researcher from ISEC, , and Dr Thekur, member of the BBMP Biodiversity Committee headed by Mr. Yellapa Reddy.

The meeting started off with a round of introductions and brief presentations by ESG staff sharing the recent developments in the road widening and lake campaigns. In response to this, a few people shared their concerns as pedestrian users and cyclists on roads. There was a brief discussion on pedestrian and users of non motorized transport and street vendors , as envisaged by the National Urban Transport Policy.

Following this, Leo explained the implications of the interim order in the road widening PIL, upon the future course of action.


The main points of the interim order :


The interim order of the High Court was granted because the BBMP’s road widening scheme violates the provisions of the Karnataka Town & Country Planning Act. Taking cognizance of the points raised by the petitioners , an arrangement acceptable to the BBMP and the petitioners was worked out, whereby it was decided that the Biodiversity Committee constituted by the BBMP would hear the parties on the issues involved in the road widening scheme. The High Court also directed the BBMP to include six more persons in the Committee ( three on petitioners’ suggestion and three on the BBMP consul’s). The High Court judgment specifies that “The Committee shall also take into consideration not only the felling of trees and the widening of roads to reach the international airport but also such other incidental and related matters which result in the traffic hazards and also in relation to public/private transport, senior citizens, physically handicapped persons, children, ecology, environment and health” and that “the parties are at liberty to request the Committee for an interim arrangement with regard to widening of the roads and the felling and replanting of trees in urban area where the widening of the roads work is launched and executed.”

Leo shared his view that the judgment was quite favorable and provided plenty of room for imaginative interventions by HU to constructively carry forward the road widening campaign. He said that the important step would be to present Hasiru Usiru’s views at committee meetings not only through the three committee members , but also being directly present at the meetings. He said that HU members could organize people from their neighbourhoods and request the Committee to be a part of the meetings, and also hand in written suggestions about addressing traffic congestion in their neighbourhoods.

Some people opined that looking at traffic congestion solutions was a complex exercise and enquired if ESG had data about traffic flows in the city and at traffic signal points. To this, Dasarathi ( from HU) and Leo responded that solutions had to be addressed on a case by case basis, and at a neighbourhood level and cannot be worked out on a generic basis for the entire city .

It was decided that it was necessary to organize a one day workshop where everyone could equip themselves with the details of the road widening scheme, get to examine different perspectives about designing roads and exchange ideas on addressing problems in their neighbourhoods. The workshop was finalized for the 19th of July.

The meeting concluded on the note that this was just an introductory meeting to the issue and had to be followed up by other meetings in neighbourhoods organized by HU members, representations to the BBMP Committee and so on.

Petition for protecting the lakes

To:

Dr. Dilip Kumar, IFS
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests
Karnataka State Forest Department
Aranya Bhavan
Bangalore – 560003



Dear Sir,

We are aware that the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka has directed you to file a status report with regard to status of lakes in Bangalore that are being privatised.

The undersigned wish to express their deepest concern over the ongoing efforts of the Government of Karnataka through the agency of the Lake Development Authority (LDA) to privatise lakes in Bangalore, and hand them over to private profit making bodies. Already four prime water bodies - Agara Lake, Hebbal Lake, Vengaiah Kere and Nagawara Lakes have been already been leased out by LDA. As per the lease agreements signed between the LDA and the private entities, these lakes have been handed over on lease of 15 years, subsequently extendable, ostensibly for development of the lakes.

Such development involves introduction of restaurants, kiosks,boating, water sports, jetty etc, as it has already been seen in the case of the Nagawara Lake by Lumbini Gardens Pvt Ltd, and by M/s ParC Systems in the case of Vengaih Kere. We are deeply distressed by this development as we find this unethical and counter to the objective of environment conservation and maintenance of lakes as our public commons. The kind of activities that have been allowed distance visitors from nature, and feed into a consumerist culture that we could well do without.

Incidentally, these lakes were comprehensively de-silted, restored and rehabilitated by grants from the Norwegian Government under the Indo-Norwegian Project and the National Lake Conservation Programme of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. As a result these lakes are fantastic water bodies and excellent habitats for birds - both migrating and local. In addition they support a wide diversity of flora and fauna, and support the livelihoods of tens of fishing families.

Over time, these lakes have been intensively used by all local residents and the general public for various purposes. While Agara is being used for walking, jogging and recreational purposes, Hebbal Lake has been used for customary and traditional occupations like fishing, grazing and irrigation. In addition, birdwatchers have been visiting these wetland habitats regularly documenting the excellent diversity of migratroy waterfowl. All these lakes, and Hebbal in particular, have been the subject of numerous scholars and researchers studying wetlands, birds, aquatic life and so on. Hebbal Lake has infact been repeatedly proposed for conservation as a bird refuge, and its watershed as a Regional Park (per the Lakshman Rau Committee Report –1988).

These water bodies are also critical open spaces for children of surrounding neighbourhoods whose sensibilities towards nature and its dynamics are also awakened by the easy access to such open spaces.

We sincerely believe that it is an unnecessary and damaging investment to now lease out these very lakes for advancing commercial interests.Besides being illegal this will take away our public commons and our natural heritage and will only benefit a few commercial entities. This loss will be dear and felt by present and future generations.

Keeping all this in view, we urge you to recommend to the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka that the programme of lake privatisation must be abandoned. We strongly feel that lakes must be maintained as our common heritage, their maintenance undertaken with the cooperation of local communities and no activity inconsistent with the traditional and specific use of the water bodies should be allowed now or in the future.

As concerned individuals, we are keen to assist the Government of Karnataka and its agencies in any intervention that will ensure the protection and sustenance of our lakes systems.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Above is a representation to the PCCF (principal chief conservator of forests) urging him not to support the privatization of
lakes. Kindly endorse the same on

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/blorelakes/

Your complete details - Name, address and email id is required

Meanwhile, Join the Human Chain on Sunday

Location: Agara Tank: see,maps
How to get there: zoom-out on the imagery to chalk out your route OR from BTM Layout -Silk Board and from under the Hosur Road fly-over go towards Sarjapur Road for nearly a kilometer. The tank is adjacent to the traffic island linking Koramangala and HSR Layout.

Date: SUNDAY, June 22, 2008
Time: 11.00AM

HasiruUsiru Meeting : 31st May, 2008

Venue : Civic,Langford Road

Point 1: the protest.

If we do a protest on Nanda Road, we need to have our goals clear, and our facts straight. We are not opposed to the Metro at a high level, but we are concerned about the way the infrastructure will be set up for the Metro. One our our main aims is to save the trees of Bangalore, Nanda Road is a symbol of Green Bangalore, and hence we plan to protest there.

About facts, we need to educate ourselves on the social, economic and environmental impact of the Metro. We should study the documents on the Metro's website. We should find out how much of Lalbagh is going to be taken over by the Metro. Kathyayini brough out the point that a number of issues/concerns that have been raised about the Metro have not been fixed. Do we really need the Malls and shops that have currently been planned?

We are postponing the protest to get enough time to publicise, and hopefully get a very good turnout.

TODO items:

1. Try and involve folks who have been involved in discussions and actions about the Metro in the past.
2. Fix the protest date. Kanishka will set up a poll on HU about this. The choices currently are June 29 or July 6.
3. Schools and Colleges are opening now. Try and get the kids to come. National College in Jayanagar is one such candidate.
4. Involve Hawker's associations, and residents associations.
5. Fix the _exact_ location for the protest.
6. Get police permission for the protest.
7. Frame an email that we will send out on mailing lists. Maybe, a bulleted list with 4-5 main goals and objectives which we are trying to achieve.
8. Get folks from the media (journalists from Hindu and Deccan Herald that people at the meeting knew) that we can ask to publicize the event, apart from a press conference.


Point 2: the PIL.

Divya brought out the point that one of the judges was difficult to convince of the problems of tree-felling. We also now know that the number of roads to be widened has gone up to 95. Also, the lawyer has said that now, since the PIL has been admitted, the protest should not be a problem to hold.

Point 3: talking to the BMTC

We should continue the talks that we had with Mr. Dastgir Sharief, either with him or Mr. Tripathi. We should follow up on some of the topics we had discussed, like the website, Mr Parmeshwar's proposal, etc.

PIL against Road Widening Projects

Karnataka High Court admits PIL against Road Widening Projects in Bangalore

Issues emergent notices to Respondents



Mr. Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Mr. Justice A. N. Venugopal Gowda,
constituting the Division Bench of the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka,
today admitted a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Environment
Support Group and others against the ongoing irrational road widening
projects of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP – Corporation of
the City of Greater Bangalore). Appreciating the urgency for considering
the need to protect avenue trees from needless felling and safeguarding
various rights and priveleges of pedestrians, street vendors, etc., the
Hon'ble Judges issued emergent notices to the Respondents while also
allowing for serving of hand summons.



The PIL challenges BBMP's ongoing project of widening 91 roads (a number
likely to increase) in Bangalore, running into a length of about 400 kms.
across the length and breadth of the old city areas. This mega project
is predicated on the premise that it would result in improved flow of
traffic and reduce congestion. However, no evidence has been presented to
prove that the result of widening would actually achieve these objectives.
In contrast to the approach adopted by BBMP, experience from densely
populated and leading cities from across the world prove that widening of
roads is not the solution for easing traffic congestion. Instead
intelligent design approaches, responsive (rather than reactionary)
traffic management, enhancement of public transport, improvement in
pedestrian zones, protection of livelihoods of vendors, and discouraging
personalised modes of transport have successfully addressed the most
serious traffic congestion problems of mega cities. Such approaches have
also enabled the protection of cultural heritage, public spaces and urban
greenery, significantly enhancing the environmental quality of urban
areas.



The PIL makes a strong case against tree felling as the first step to road
widening by demonstrating that the work undertaken by BBMP in several
roads has proved unsuccessful in reducing traffic congestion. The
Petitioners submit that the actions of the Tree Officer in authorising the
felling of hundreds of avenue trees violate various provisions of the
Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, and is admittedly an action taken
under duress. In most cases where hundreds of really old avenue trees
have been felled, the stated object of widening has not been achieved even
after years, as various utilities have not shifted out of the proposed
right of way, or such spaces have been encroached by places of worship.



The PIL relies heavily on the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, the
National Urban Transport Policy and a variety of circulars issued by the
Union Urban Development Secretary that argue for a rational and
intelligent approach to managing congestion in urban areas. In
particular, it makes a case that the object of all travel is to ensure
people move across cities in safety and comfort, thus necessitating
privileges to pedestrian movement, non-motorised forms of transport and
public transport. Contrarily, the BBMP's approach seems to arrogate a
right for the private motor car over all other modes of travel, thereby
extinguishing many fundamental rights, while also exposing the public at
large to great discomfort and even harm.



The PIL presents a variety of evidence to argue that the road widening
programme is illegal as it has skirted fundamental public consultation
processes required per the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act. In
addition the draft Comprehensive Development Plan -2005 (CDP) of Bangalore
Development Authority, defining land use of the city, did not contain any
proposal for widening roads on such a grand scale. Surprisingly, the
final CDP – 2007 introduced plans for most inner city roads to be widened
without in any manner informing or involving the public, an action that is
patently illegal.



The PIL is a result of a long and deliberate series of proactive steps
taken by the Petitioners along with Hasiru Usiru, a network of concerned
groups and individuals in Bangalore. The Petitioners draw attention to the
ruling of the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka in 2005 (WP No. 14104/2005)
in which the Government was directed to involve the public in decisions
relating to road widening and tree felling. It is submitted that despite
exhaustive efforts on the part of the Petitioners and Hasiru Usiru urging
the Government and its agencies to engage with the public in evolving such
schemes, the current road widening project has been rushed through
disregarding the directions of the Hon'ble Court. In this context, it is
prayed that the Hon'ble Court be pleased to strike down the road widening
proposals, and the consequent tree felling orders. In addition, it is
prayed that the Govenment be directed to evolve rational road development
proposals that met with the highest standards of law, policy and urban
planning.



The petitioners Environment Support Group and CIVIC Bangalore were
represented by Advocate Mr. Sunil Dutt Yadav and Mr. Leo F. Saldanha,
Coordinator, Environment Support Group, appeared in person. A copy of the
PIL is accessible online at: www.esgindia.org

Meeting Mr. Dastagir Sharif - Chief Traffic Manager, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC)

Notes on yesterday's meeting with Mr Dastagir Sharif:

1. The website is outdated. Can it be updated for good route lookup?
Ans: The previous guy working on the website was not good. They have engaged an "agency" and soon, the website will be live. He did not tell us when exactly it will become live (we asked him multiple times). He showed us a map of all the bus stops marked on a large-scale map of Bangalore. Apparently marking the bus stops was a non-trivial task.

2. Can we have a graphic map, overlaying all bus routes?
Ans: Maps were created, and lots of bus stops have such maps. But there is too much vandalism, and all these maps have been destroyed. Moreover, because Bangalore is not a well-planned city, we cannot create the kind of bus maps that London and NYC have (!!!).

3.Can you time buses so that you prevent bunching up of buses, and keep them flowing at regular intervals?
Ans: Given the current traffic situation this is very difficult. The policymakers do not have the will to keep buses and other traffic orderly and prevent roadblocks. Without orderly traffic, BMTC cannot do much about ensuring these "timely" buses.

4. Can English be added to the boards?
Ans: Just two days back, he had a meeting with some folks from the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike. The BMTC is sponsoring a trip for them to see other cities in India so that they see that English is used everywhere. Maybe after that, they can put English on the buses in Bangalore (!!!).

5. Is there a plan for BRT pilots?
Ans. Yes, especially on outer ring road (where the bus frequencey is every 2-3 minutes) and the road to the new airport. These two roads are being targetted because they are 6-lane roads. He is trying to push for them.

6. Are you planning new buses and routes?
Ans: There is a plan to increase fleet to 10,000 in the coming years, 800 this year alone. But it is difficult because they are not getting enough trained drivers. Recently, they've put out job availabilies for 3500 drivers, but they have received only 2300 applicants. He claims that a bus driver job is not as attractive today as it used to be given the other options people have. Another 6500 positions have been advertised.

7. Other gripes about increasing number of buses and constructing bus shelters:
Ans: He runs into problems with the deputy commisioner of police. Apparently, the police do not want to see more buses because they feel it will lead to more congestion. Moreover, BBMP does not give them permission to construct more bus shelters. They've tried to get permission but haven't been able to.

8. On buses converting to CNG:
Ans: They are ready to do this if the Govt. "agrees" to it. I think that means providing the money to convert the buses.

9. How about introducing more Volvo/high-end buses?
Ans: Volvo buses are loss making. They have already ordered more of these buses, but they seem not to be sustainable. Even the Suvarna buses, which are only marginally more expensive than regular buses, are making losses. So he does not have much of an intent to increase high-end buses. The reason, he says, is that people with enough money to travel in such buses consider it beneath themselves to ride in public transport.

10. Lots of bus stops are just before or after important traffic junctions. Can he remedy that?
Ans: A lot of this has already been done, and they are actively working on this problem.

11. How about introducing Point-to-point buses with few stops
Ans: He talked about the Suvarna buses, and how they are loss-making.

12. Why not have smaller buses shuttling within the same area?
Ans: There are already 16 such routes, and they plan to introduce 19 more by the end of the year. He gave us a list of the 16 routes: Here they are:

FDR-1 From Uttarahall to Uttarahalli
FDR-2 From Uttarahalli to Uttarahalli
FDR-3 From ISRO Layout to ISRO layout
SJP.FDR-2 From Jn. of Hosur Road to Sarjapura
HSR.FDR-1 From Madivala to Chandrapura
BGT.FDR-1 From Bangalore Dairy Circle to Bannerghatta
374-E from Chikkalasandra to Chikkalasandra
374-F from Chikkalasandra to Chikkalasandra
500-Q From Goraguntepalya
258-CB from Goverdhan to Hesaraghatta
NMG.FDR-1 From Peenya 2nd Stage to Chikkabanawara
NMG.FDR-2 from Goverdhan to Hesaraghatta
240-R from Magadi Road tollgate to Gollarahatti
501-F from Kottigepalya to Kottigepalya
501-D from Kottigepalya to Kottigepalya
HSK.FDR-1 from KR Puram to Hosakote

However, the one in Koramangala was a complete disaster ( to and from the Mall), so he has discontinued that one.

13. How can we help?
Ans. Work through the press to increase support for the two BRT pilots. Also increase awareness in middle-class people and encourage them to use the bus.


Participants : Deepa Mohan, Nithin Shenoy, Ranjita Bhagwan & Anush Shetty

Thanks to Ranjita for the notes

Car Free Day